Arms crossed — and with his trademark steely glare — Tie Domi speaks in the fragmented exclamations of almost every minor hockey coach in Canada.
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Former Toronto Maple Leaf and now assistant coach of the Don Mills Flyers, Tie Domi, looks on as his son, Max Domi (16), jumps into the game against the Toronto Marlboros of the GTHL on January 25, 2011.
Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star

By:Dan RobsonStaff Reporter, Published on Thu Jan 27 2011

Arms crossed — and with his trademark steely glare — Tie Domi speaks in the fragmented exclamations of almost every minor hockey coach in Canada.

“Come on!” he yelps from the visitors’ bench at Herb Carnegie Arena in North York. “Offside!”

“Too long, too long!”

“Move, move!”

As an assistant with the minor midget Don Mills Flyers, the long-time Maple Leafs enforcer coaches his 15-year-old son Max, a skilled centre touted to be a top pick in this year’s OHL draft, if he doesn’t decide on the NCAA college route.

“Good job, boys. Good job,” Domi says between the first and second periods. He lets a few HBO-rated quips slip through the course of the Flyers’ 2-1 loss to the rival Toronto Marlies in the final game of the regular season. But it’s nothing out of the ordinary for a hockey coach.

When the game ends at 11:30 p.m., the all-time Leaf leader in penalty minutes declines the Star’s request for comment on his coaching life. This reporter has seen enough Rock ’em, Sock ’em videos to not press the matter further.

But Domi is just one of many former NHL players who dedicate their time to coaching their kids in minor hockey.

Paul Coffey coaches the Toronto Marlies major peewee team. Former Leaf Jason Allison recently established a team in Mississauga.

“It’s a tough job,” he says of the gig. “You have to make sure you always go to the bench with a coffee.”

For Clark, coaching is a chance to share something he loves with his 11-year-old son Kody. Hockey, once a profession, is now a family thing.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Clark says of spending time at the rink with his son. And although Clark could likely find work with any NHL team, he prefers the minor leagues.

“I’d never be home. If I was in (NHL) hockey, I wouldn’t be at any of his games or practices,” Clark says.

Nick Kypreos, the former Leaf and current Hockey Central analyst for Rogers Sportsnet, helps out at team practices for sons Zachary, 11, and Theo, 10. His 6-year-old daughter Annie plays too.

“At the end of the day, I’m just hoping that the life lessons that the game can teach you are instilled in what they go on to do, whatever they do,” Kypreos says. “It’s just not realistic to look at anything but the life lessons you can get out of it. The life lessons are a guarantee; pro hockey is not.”

Kypreos says minor hockey meant “everything” to him as a youngster. Now he gets to share that joy with his kids.

Michael Peca, a one-time Leaf who retired from the NHL last season, is of the same mind.

“Youth hockey was the best part of my life,” says Peca, who coaches his 10-year-old son Trevor on the West Seneca (N.Y.) Wings.

During the recent world junior championship in Buffalo, Peca helped kick off his brainchild, the world U-11 invitational hockey tournament. Some of the top teams from across North America participated, as the best junior players in the world battled nearby.

“I love it. I just love teaching the game to the kids,” says Peca, who recently coached against a team from Boston led by former NHLers Tony Amonte and Marty McInnis. “I love being a part of it.”

But parts of the game he played as a boy, Peca says, have changed for kids his son’s age.

“The biggest surprise to me is how many parents think their kids are being scouted already,” Peca says. “Parents lose the idea that this is supposed to be fun for these kids. I try to remind them of that.

“I see a lot of parents that are pushing their kids so hard that these kids aren’t really falling in love with the game on their own.”

“There’s too much pressure from the parents,” says Claude Lemieux, winner of three Stanley Cups and current coach of the Toronto Red Wings major bantam team, on which his 14-year-old son Brendan plays. “Back in the old days we all had the dream (of making the NHL), but I think our parents were more realistic.”

Tom Fergus, a staple of the 1980s edition of the Leafs, has also seen the politics of minor hockey spoil the joy of the game.

“The major thing is that they know what these guys make at the higher level,” says Fergus, who coaches his 13-year-old son Tom on the Toronto Jr. Canadiens minor bantam team and his daughter Katie, 17, on the Burlington Barracudas junior team.

Fergus says coaching youth hockey has revealed the ugly side of the sport. He loves working with the kids, but parents and politics are another matter, focusing too much on end rewards and not the small steps along the way.

“I make a point of not taking anybody who has been trouble, because you don’t change,” he says of parents who have a reputation for causing problems.

All of the NHL offspring making their way through minor hockey carry a certain expectation for greatness. It’s a whisper in the stands, but a heavy one.

Clark, Peca and Lemieux all say they’ve done their best to keep their expectations of players — hard work, discipline, admirable character — reasonable.

Long-retired NHL journeyman Andrew McBain coaches his 11-year-old son Jack on the Don Mills Flyers minor peewee team. He sees no need for his son to feel the pressure.

“He’s not coming in with huge expectations of shoes to fill,” he laughs. “He’s not exactly Gretzky’s son, if you know what I mean.”

For McBain, minor hockey is about the memories that linger on, well after the ice is cleared.

He still remembers driving to games with his father as a boy, and loves sharing the same experience with his son.

“They are probably fleeting,” he says of those unique moments. “You want to take advantage of them as much as you can.”

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